Missing girl, metal worker finally found at a motel

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, April 18, 1995

San Jose police detectives on Tuesday were questioning a 12-year-old San Jose girl and a 51-year-old sheet metal worker who were found together in a Pomona motel after disappearing on April 5.

Kent Phillip Phiko and Tran Ahn Vo were taken into custody at 9 p.m. Monday at a motel in Pomona, 30 miles east of Los Angeles.

Phiko, who was arrested on a "child enticement" warrant issued on April 12 from San Jose, was to be returned to San Jose after being questioned by investigators at the Pomona jail, police spokesman Louis Quezada said.

"We won't know what the charges are going to be until our detectives have questioned him and the girl," Quezada said.

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Vo was placed with Los Angeles County Child Protective Services and was to be returned to her family, he said.

Pomona police apprehended Phiko and the girl after a Los Angeles television station learned of their location from a Salvation Army officer to whom the pair had turned for help.

Phiko sought aid&lt;

KABC television sent a camera crew to the Pomona Auto Lodge after receiving the tip from Salvation Army Major Moses Reyes. The station also passed the tip along KGO-TV in San Francisco, which alerted San Jose police.

"They had no car," Reyes said Tuesday. "His (Phiko's) story was that he was bringing this young lady - he said his adopted daughter - to be with some friends. Then he said he ran out of funds because he couldn't locate them, and that's why he was in the predicament he was."

Reyes added that Vo "was confirming his story as he was relating it to me."

Phiko was vague about where he and the girl had come from, Reyes said. "He said it was somewhere up north."

When Pomona police officers arrived at the motel, they spotted Phiko walking across the parking lot, said Lt. Larry Todd. He surrendered without incident.

Vo was taken into temporary custody as a runaway and possible victim of a crime, Todd said.

Phiko told reporters in a broadcast interview, "She's not been harmed or molested . . . as you will find out."

He added: "We're just friends. . . . We're an odd couple. We are the oddest couple around."

Phiko said as their friendship evolved, "She called one night, she just said, "Will you come and get me?' " He added, "It was kind of simple like that."

Vo was in good condition, Todd said. She spontaneously told police that the pair were just friends, he said.

Reyes said that Phiko and the girl first came to the Salvation Army on Easter Sunday. They sat in the back row of the church and participated in the service, after which they sought food and housing assistance.

Reyes arranged for a $35 a night motel room and gave the pair chits for a taxi to the motel, plus coupons for food.

Claims of adoption&lt;

Reyes said Phiko told him that he and his ex-wife had adopted the girl and that he had reclaimed custody of her after learning that she was in an abusive relationship with his ex-wife's boyfriend. In fact, Phiko is married.

Phiko and Vo returned to the Salvation Army on Monday and received the same services as on the previous day. By then, Reyes had a hunch that they might be the pair missing from San Jose, and he called KABC.

Vo apparently first came into contact with Phiko through a wrong number. Phiko dialed incorrectly, she picked up the phone, and the two struck up a relationship.

In November, Vo told friends that she had a "secret admirer" named Kent, said officer Todd Martin of the San Jose police.

On April 5, Tran left for Foothill Middle School as usual, but never returned home. When police were notified, they called the mysterious "Kent's" number.

Phiko's wife answered the phone. She told officers her husband was a 260-pound sheet-metal worker from Campbell and had recently left home after telling her about Tran.

He said he had "met this little girl through a wrong number, and after that wrong number, (they) had quite a few more conversations," Martin said.

Last week, he called his wife to say he was "protecting" a young girl.&lt;